Category Archives: Section

‘Be Realistic…Demand the Impossible!”

Posted on 05/01/2008 by Altazor

”It is not that our problems are that big… It’s just that we are looking at them on our knees.” —Grafitti in the Buenos Aires subte, 2003 RISING PERSONAL DEBT AND BANKRUPTCIES, falling wages, housing foreclosures, growing unemployment, increasing service … Continue reading →

Posted in Labor/Economics, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Crisis at the Champaign County Nursing Home

Posted on 05/01/2008 by Joe Futrelle

THE CHAMPAIGN COUNTY NURSING HOME needs ten more nurses. According to nursing home administrator Andrew Buffenbarger, that’s what it would it would take to meet the home’s need for 30 nurses without resorting to high-priced, high-turnover contract nurses. Along with … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Labor of Black Women

Posted on 05/01/2008 by Amira Davis

IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, Black women have labored harder within its borders than any other group. Black women have constituted the most disposal segment of the American labor force, working in the least desirable, least paid positions. Not only … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Human Rights, Labor/Economics, Women | Leave a comment

Signs of the Times: A Message from Douglass Park Resident to a Toxic Neighbor

Posted on 05/01/2008 by Alvia Dyson

THE PROBLEM WITH THE SITE at 5th and Hill is clear: we need to get the site cleaned up. Until it is cleaned up, we have to let people know what that site is. We have young kids that live … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment | Leave a comment

Behind the Economic Crisis

Posted on 05/01/2008 by Tom Mackaman

FOR OVER A DECADE, THE PROPAGANDISTS of capitalism celebrated the triumph of the “American model” of business and financial deregulation, the “end of the business cycle” and even “the End of History.” The economic turmoil of 2008, which threatens a … Continue reading →

Posted in Labor/Economics | Leave a comment

Jails, Hospitals, Hip-Hop

Posted on 04/01/2008 by Cassidy Browning

The one-person show, Jails, Hospitals, and Hip-Hop (JH3) by Danny Hoch was presented at spaces across the UIUC campus. Each performance was followed by a discussion with director, Alex Berg-Jacobson, Assistant Director, Keri Carpenter, and actor, Chris Silcox. One night … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts, Healthcare, Human Rights, Prisoners | Leave a comment

You Can’t Jail the Spirit: US Political Prisoners and POWs

Posted on 04/01/2008 by Public i

COMPILED BY THE PRISON ACTIVIST RESOURCE CENTER. For other Political Prisoner/POW-related resources, go to our political prisoner page. The list is alphabetical. And as of February 2005, there are so many names that we have split off onto separate pages … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Prisoners | Leave a comment

A Toxic Legacy: Douglass Park Residents In Their Own Words, Part 2

Posted on 04/01/2008 by C-U Political Action Project

THE DOUGLASS PARK NEIGHBORHOOD is home to a toxic legacy. Beneath the vacant lot at 5th and Hill, the soil and groundwater have long been contaminated. Along with an abandoned pump house, this contamination is the last remaining sign that … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment | Leave a comment

Independent Media Still Remains Unequal

Posted on 03/26/2008 by Lori Serb

WOMEN’S VOICES ARE JUST NOT HEARD. If you randomly turn on the radio for an hour during any program (music or public affairs), count how many times you hear a woman’s voice and even more rare, a woman of color … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | Leave a comment

A Toxic Legacy: Douglass Park Residents In Their Own Words

Posted on 03/26/2008 by C-U Political Action Project

FOR PEOPLE LIVING IN THE DOUGLASS PARK neighborhood, the vacant lot at 5th and Hill has a distinctively toxic legacy. People with a connection to the neighborhood have long suspected that the site was a source of problems. As they … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment | Leave a comment

Update From Kenya IMC

Posted on 01/26/2008 by IMC Kenya

FIVE DAYS AGO, ON THE 27th OF DECEMBER, I stood in a queue for six hours—from 5.30 AM to 11.30 AM, waiting for my turn to cast a vote in my country Kenya’s presidential, parliamentary and civic elections. When the … Continue reading →

Posted in IMC, International | Leave a comment

Water and Environmental Justice in Palestine

Posted on 01/26/2008 by Stephen Gasteyer

JERUSALEM, BORDERS, SECURITY, VIOLENCE and the fate of Palestinian refugees: these are the issues most often mentioned when the mainstream media discusses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, President Bush has specifically mentioned these issues as he tries to restart talks aimed … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, International | 1 Comment

Environmental Justice an Overview

Posted on 01/26/2008 by Marti Wilkinson

TOXIC TOURS IN THE CHAMPAIGN community have placed a local focus on the site of the former coal to gas plant on the corner of 5th and Hill. Under this quiet grassy surface and beneath the white building with peeling … Continue reading →

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Against Toxicity and Secrecy: Digging Up the Legacy of the 5th and Hill Site

Posted on 01/26/2008 by C-U Political Action Project

Off-site Migration of the “Toxic Blob” To see the vacant lot at 5th and Hill streets today, you would never know that a coal-to-natural gas plant once stood on the site. You would never know that this plant once dumped … Continue reading →

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National Conference for Prison Book Projects Held in Urbana-Champaign

Posted on 11/26/2007 by Books to Prisoners

ON NOVEMBER 3, 2007, a conference in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois brought together 88 participants from 29 different prison book projects across the country. A similar event of this kind has not taken place since a 2002 conference in Philadelphia. Participants shared … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Prisoners | Leave a comment

Patch Adams

Posted on 11/26/2007 by Rachel Hurley

PATCH ADAMS HAS BLUE HAIR and 45 million people in the United States are without healthcare. While few would disagree that the latter is the more appalling of the two facts most might find the former more shocking. We are … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare | Leave a comment

Sen. Frerichs and Rep. Jakobsson Vote to Send Medical Cannabis Users to Jail

Posted on 11/26/2007 by Shaleen Aghi

MY FRIEND JULIE FALCO lives in Chicago and is an alum of Illinois State University, where she graduated in Communications and played in a band called New Position. She was singing live on stage in Bloomington-Normal when she suddenly found … Continue reading →

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Vernon Bellecourt: A Life of Struggle for Indian Rights

Posted on 11/26/2007 by Antonia Darder

“Our detractors always say, ‘We are honoring you,’ It’s not an honor. In whose honor? We have to ask. Beginning with the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, about 16 million of us were wiped out, including whole villages in Washington, where … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Indigenous | Leave a comment

UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Rings Hollow at UIUC

Posted on 11/26/2007 by Antonia Darder

IN SEPTEMBER OF 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a landmark declaration in support of the rights of an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples in some 70 countries worldwide, prohibiting State discrimination against them in both practice … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Indigenous | Leave a comment

Breast Cancer Survivor

Posted on 10/26/2007 by Marti Wilkinson

In the year 2003, I am 35 working, raising a child, trying to get by. I go to the women’s clinic for my yearly probe. It becomes more than a matter of routine when the nurse says, “Hey you’re 35 … Continue reading →

Posted in Healthcare, Human Rights, Women | Leave a comment